Grizzlies in West Yellowstone

[Every Miles A Memory]

Ok, I'll let you know first thing that none of these Grizzlies were taken in the park, they were taken in the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in the town of West Yellowstone.

My wife and I had the day off yesterday and needed to go into town to open a bank account. It was raining off and on and we thought we'd check out this Non-For-Profit Educational Center that rescues animals that might normally be put down because of their attitudes or tendencies to venture into certain populated areas

It's a great way to learn about Yellowstone's most saught after subjects and only made my want to photograph them in the wild even strogner. One thing for sure is I'll never be able to get shots like this in the wild....I think if I was ever this close to a grizzly this size, I'd be more worried about the load in my pants than the camera in my hand

1.

2.

3. Wrestling with a pine tree. This tree was about 8' tall

4. Running out of the pond

5. Wrestling in the Pond

6. Too Close for Comfort with a Grizzly

To give you any indication of how close I was, all of these were shot with a Canon 5D and a Canon 400 f/2.8 with a 1.4x extender mounted on a Wimberly Type II Head. I was maybe 30-50 feet away from the bears and was more interested in head shots. My wife was shooting a 30D with a 28-300L lens, but she's slower than I when it comes to working on her images. So we'll have to wait a day or two for her to get them ready...LOL

More can be seen here - Thanks for looking and any comments or suggestions are always appreciated

 

[Abel Villesca]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. :costumed-smiley-007

 

[bucketosudz]

Awesome!!!!!

Pat, your my new best friend!! Grizzlies are my favorite subject... :wings: and I love the Discovery Center. My wife and I were just talking about heading up there soon. Now I need to.

I live in Idaho and my Dad lives in Shoshoni, he came over to see me a couple weekends ago and saw a Grizzly near Moran. He got quite a thrill out of seeing the bear.

Thanks so much for sharing your photos with us.

 

[Corey]

Beautiful pictures!
The first picture he is talking to me.
He is saying "Go ahead, try and knock that battery off of my shoulder."

 

[Starscream]

Those are some wonderful shots Pat! :beer:

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Thanks Corey and Starscream! It was a fun day of shooting that's for sure!

I've been working on some more images to post. Stay tuned.

 

[photoman]

So Jealous! I really need to get up there and get some wildlife shots.

Very nicely done!

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Ok, a few more I've worked on that I thought I'd share

This girl was playing in the pond and just having a blast

You can still see the blonde girl who is in the first shot in the bottom of this image. She was having a lot of fun in the pond by herself, so two big guys had to come in and fight over which one got to bathe with her.

This one is just too funny for me. This guy had found a shoulder bone he was playing with and in this shot, I thought he looked like he was thanking the Food God's for his lunch

 

[nwoods]

Wow that first shot is awesome. Cover shot quality for sure. That bear looks incredibly intelligent in that shot.

 

[fowldarr]

On a side note, for those of you that have kids, you can take them to the discovery center, and if you are there at the right time, they will let your kids into the grizzly enclosure to hide the food prior to letting the grizzlies out from their naps. My kids had a blast watching the bears searching around and finding the food that they had hidden. We ended up being there for several hours, but it was worth it. I live in Idaho as well, and make it to yellowstone a couple of times a year.

 

[Funrover]

Sweet thanks!!!